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Glass disks for Lumia, plus other parts

Hi guys, I read this forum every few days but haven't posted much. I am on the LPF by the same user name.
There has been much talk lately of the 565/575 yellow modules from two differnet suppliers, more so on LPF than here.

I have two of the 565nm modules in hand, and two of the 575's on the way from Optlaser. I am not as much into the pointer/handheld thing as I like Lumia and sound reactive scanners much more. I do have a 500mW rgb, ttl scanner and a Laser Dock dongle as well. I got the 565/575 modules mostly for the Lumia and other scan devices. The red/green combo for yellow is ok on a lissajous scanner is ok, but gets broken up to red and green on a Lumia. So, the new yellow are great for that.

My post here is about Lumia glass disks. I have access to multiple glass door/window shops as well as stained glass/ glass art shops in the area that I am in. I have collected many different types of patterned glass that make some awsome displays, and they are readily available to me. I have the diamond hole saw cutters and drill bits to make disks from 30mm to 120mm with center holes of 2mm to 6mm.

I have also sourced slow RPM DC geared motors and PWM controllers I am currently experimening with. For example, 12v 3RPM motor with PWM control, I can slow down to less than .5 rpm but will still do the max of 3 RPM. I know, for the most part the slower the better with Lumia, but to each their own.

I am just trying to gauge the demand for this type of equipment. I am not out to make a butt load of money, just to share knowledge and possibly provide parts and equipment for others that are into this part of the hobby.I might be able to provide a basic kit; motor, controller, power supply and a couple or 3 disks to try out, assembly, your'e on you own. I can provide basic diagrams and photos of my setups as a base.

Greg Sutherland (Displaser) had some amazing shower glass years ago. He cut it up into circles, added a motor mount in the center, and sold quite a few pieces to PL members. It's still one of the best Lumia glass samples I have.

That being said, I'd probably be interested in picking up a couple new Lumia wheels to play with. I've been kicking around the idea of a multi-wheel Lumia projector for a while now anyway. But I also agree with Jason: price is key. I think Greg was charging $8-10 for his wheels...

Multiwheel is a great idea if you do one wheel at a time. Multiples in series are just messy. I thought to do this and if I do I would have separate wheels and sources for each so they can be one together or smoothly transitioned. The mech to swap disks is much more that full duplication in terms of work. Now you could use one source and a galvo mirror setup like a beam box.

I also caution mixing too many colors. I built up ten and it becomes like a kid with crayons. You loose the structure and can't focus on the image. Too much to see. three at a time is the max and I find two interesting.

For a commercial venture, I agree. But Greg was simply covering the cost of his time to set up the wet saw and grind out a bunch of circles. He got the glass for next to nothing (surplus / broken shower doors, or something like that) and when you're cutting 4 inch diameter circles you can get quite a few circles from a single 3' x 5' sheet of glass.

Like I said, I already have a bunch of glass. I even have some torture tubes (including one that Steve Roberts made for me at SELEM one year). I also have Lenticular Plastic, gratings, mylar, and a bunch of other crap that would be fun to add to the mix. So I'm not really in the market for more, but if someone was assembling a kit of sorts I would probably pick one up if the price were reasonable.

Multiwheel is a great idea if you do one wheel at a time.

Lenticular plastic before the Lumia wheel looks really good. Line / Grid diffraction gratings or scanned images can also look good if they are positioned before the Lumia glass.

Multiples in series are just messy.

As expected. But with a few GM20s you can build a "lumia rail" of sorts with a half-dozen different effects in a line and then select them one by one. That's the goal here. We've had a few displays like this at SELEM in past years...

Caveat: you don't want a white light beam, but with this design you do need the beams to be close enough together so that they can all fit on a small mirror attached to the arm of a GM20.

I would have separate wheels and sources for each so they can be one together or smoothly transitioned.

That gets expensive if you're planning on using some of the more exotic wavelengths (473 blue, 589 nm yellow). I do agree that too many colors is a mistake though. My plan was to use either 4 or 5 tops. (But for sure I want yellow in the mix.)

Thanks for the comments guys.
NOT trying to do this as commercial venture! No time, this is just one of my too many hobbies.

Yes, almost all of the glass I have collected is samples and scraps. I take one of my 532nm pointers with me to check them out. Usally the person I am dealing is blown away by some of the patterns! Some of the glass though, I have gotten from a couple of stained glass and glass art shops. They are not so giving of free pieces, as the use up everything down to the smallest pieces.

Most of the glass types these shops have is colored, but, they do have one type, called "Fusable Glass" , a lower temp melting glass. Some of these types have unique ripples, bubbles and other "defects" or inclusions in the material as to make some interesting patterns. These tend to make a more organic pattern than the replicating textures on commercial "shower door" or other textured window/door glass. This type of glass "can" get a little pricey, $8-$12 for something like an 12" x 12" piece!

So as far as cost for cut and drilled discs, 3-4 inches, I don't see the above quoted price of $8-$10 as being unrealistic. Smaller maybe less, larger maybe more. Depends on the glass type. I cut six different discs yesterday, 40, 60 and 80mm. Drilled 2mm holes in the centers, the size of the mounting screw on the motor I am testing with, all in about an hour. Used my drill press on slow ~750rpm or so, diamond hole saws and core bits in a water bath. Only broke one disc when drilling the center hole, was pressing too hard!

As for the price of a "kit", I don't know! This is not a NASA quality level engineered device! Also, this would be what in my RC aircraft hobby would be called a "short kit". Most of what you need, all the electronics, power supply for the motor, some discs and maybe some type of motor mount to get it up and running within 30 minutes to an hour!

Mounting platform or enclosure, lasers and and laser mounts would be up to the user. As you know, that would be a personal preference as well as being very cheap to ultra expensive!

I can say that I was pretty satisfied last night testing the different discs, wavelengths and speeds, from about .3rpm to 3rpm. Probably the best combo was when I was using the 565nm ~30mW Alibaba yellow and my DTR ~65mW 490nm cyan! I was also using red 650nm, blue 450nm and green 532nm white light module and cycling through the different colors. I have run the RGB for many hours before, but the 2 new wavelengths are very cool! Finally, for me at least, having yellow and an Argon type cyan was a treat! Can't wait to get my 575nm units, the 565 has that slight green tinge to it, unless it's next to 520nm or 532nm. The 575's are supposedly more yellow with none of the green. Yes, running all 5 at the same time got quite busy at times, but still looked good.

For those of you who are the type that want to collect all the parts needed for this type of project, I would be more than willing to post links to every part I have used on this project. Truth be told, almost everything I have used has come from Amazon with the exception of the lasers, glass and motor power supplies. Amazon has 12v wall wart type supplies, but I have almost unlimited access to all the DC supplies one could ever want. From 5vdc to 15vdc, most at 1-2A output. The fusable glass is also available on Amazon as well. But taking a pointer to a glass shop with you is the only real way to do it.

I will try to get some videos of the different patterns and wavelenghts. I just have to re-activate and cleaup my YouTube channel.
Jeff

sure.. i'd love a few mounted disks. the fusible glass sounds most interesting. the best lumia effects i've made have been by melting large bubbles into acrylic with a torch.

suppose you're thinkin' about a plate o' shrimp. Suddenly someone'll say, like, plate, or shrimp, or plate o' shrimp out of the blue, no explanation. No point in lookin' for one, either. It's all part of a cosmic unconciousness.